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I use Photoshop. It isn't user-friendly, but it's the industry standard photo editing software for a reason.

That said, you can do a lot of basic editing in Digital Asset Management tools like Aperture (Mac only) or Lightroom. They keep your photos organized, but they also have tools to let you process them to correct white balance, bring out color and detail For many photographers, these tools handle most of the work they need to do.

Photoshop goes beyond when you need to do more than enhance your photo. If you want to significantly change it, then you need a tool like Photoshop.

Another option is a tool like onOne Perfect Photo Suite 7. I just wrote a review of it on my blog to show the tools it has and how they can work. It's no longer just a plugin, but now works as a stand-alone program.

Honestly, it's as simple to use as any photo software I've found. In some cases, it's about like using an ATM. If you can do that, you can apply effects with Perfect Photo Suite.

All of these tools offer a free trial version. If you decide to go with onOne Software, check my blog review. I have a coupon code to give you a discount. It's all clearly spelled out in the review as to what you get and what I get out of it.

I use Lightroom 100% of the time. I'll also use additional plug-in software such as Topaz and Nik. I was also using Paint Shop Pro X3 for additional editing but that doesn't seem to play well with Windows 8 so I may be looking into Photoshop Elements.

Of the packages I have used Adobe's Photoshop Elements is the easiest with a lot of one-click features for commonly used processing functions. I use Photoshop most of the time with some use of Lightroom. Many of my completed images require layers and Lightroom does not offer those.

What kind of photo editing software are you using to enhance your pictures with? And that's very user friendly.

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Go download some free trials. Photoshop is the industry standard, and Photoshop Elements is great entry level editing software. Lightroom is great for image management and RAW processing. And then there are other brands like Corel that many people like. But as to which one will be most user friendly for you.. you're just going to have to download some trials and play.

I use Photoshop Elements with the Topaz Labs Suite plug-in. I'm not an artistic photographer so Elements with the plug-ins works well for me. Even though I shoot in RAW + JPEG, I'm not allowed to turn in RAW files. Everything has to be turned in, immediately, in JPEG (I'm a motorsports photographer) and there is not a lot of artistic license allowed. At a shoot, I may get time to do a batch process, but not always. Later I may get time to do some in-depth processing so that is my reason for using Elements and not Photoshop CS6. I have found Elements to be more than sufficient and not really that hard to learn. It has a lot of presets that give you a starting point.

Go download some free trials. Photoshop is the industry standard, and Photoshop Elements is great entry level editing software. Lightroom is great for image management and RAW processing. And then there are other brands like Corel that many people like. But as to which one will be most user friendly for you.. you're just going to have to download some trials and play.

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While this thread has some great suggestions photo_chicks suggestion of downloading some free trials is the best!

If you shoot most of your photos jpeg than I think Photoshop Elements is a great choice. If you shoot with a DSLR and in RAW most of the time then I would probably lean towards Lightroom.

For my personal photography work I primarily use Lightroom, but for work Photoshop is still a must!

Does anyone else find Lightroom 4 a little sluggish at times? Ifound it to be that way at times but I also upgraded to 4 and upgraded to an 18MP, from a 12MP camera at the same time. Come to think of it I have bookmarked an article or tow on how to make Lightroom 4 more responsive. May need to look for them over the weekend.

Retyped my reply for a second time, because the DISBoards iOS app is becoming buggier by the day and crashed when I posted the original!

For my personal photography work I primarily use Lightroom, but for work Photoshop is still a must!

Does anyone else find Lightroom 4 a little sluggish at times? Ifound it to be that way at times but I also upgraded to 4 and upgraded to an 18MP, from a 12MP camera at the same time. Come to think of it I have bookmarked an article or tow on how to make Lightroom 4 more responsive. May need to look for them over the weekend.

Retyped my reply for a second time, because the DISBoards iOS app is becoming buggier by the day and crashed when I posted the original!

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How many photos do you have in your catalog? One way to improve performance is to split up using multiple catalogs. I wrote a brief article about it on Aperture vs Lightroom:

I am not into cloning, layers, or other trickery. Just give me the raw image and let me "develop" it like the old school guys.

It just a personal prefrence.

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I always have to laugh when people compare minimal processing to working in a darkroom. Advanced techniques in the darkroom that contribute to some of the outstanding gelatin silver prints out there actually go way beyond what you can do in Lightroom or Camera RAW.

Processing the RAW file is akin to developing film. Making a print at the enlarger is a lot like using Photoshop on that processed RAW image.

For my personal photography work I primarily use Lightroom, but for work Photoshop is still a must!

Does anyone else find Lightroom 4 a little sluggish at times? Ifound it to be that way at times but I also upgraded to 4 and upgraded to an 18MP, from a 12MP camera at the same time. Come to think of it I have bookmarked an article or tow on how to make Lightroom 4 more responsive. May need to look for them over the weekend.

Retyped my reply for a second time, because the DISBoards iOS app is becoming buggier by the day and crashed when I posted the original!

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It does seem to be little slower than LR3. I've heard quite a few people say that actually.

If it's another issue, let me know and perhaps we can find a resolution.

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For work my catalog's around 750-1000 photos and my personal catalog is just over 8,000. So that one probably could benefit from spitting it into separate catagories.

To be honest I really haven't done much with my personal photos the last few months. I just haven't been motivated to shoot that much lately. Come to think of it, the last time LR really seemed sluggish at work I was uploading some stuff to the web which would explain that situation. I also have a tendency to have more than a few apps open which can effect it somewhat.

Thanks on the offer to help me out! I plan on spending some time editing in the next week or two, so I'll let you know what issues, if any, I have.